Things I've been thinking of today, most of them probably obvious, but here goes. 1. There's no doubt distanced instruction (online or otherwise) can be as effective in fostering student learning as F2F instruction. 1/x
2. The vast majority of instructors have not had the time, experience, or assistance necessary to bring their distanced instruction on par with their more familiar F2F instruction. (I use "on par" because we can't assume the F2F is good, bad or otherwise.)
3. The primary reason students want to return to F2F class is not necessarily because the classes are so much better but because these social interactions are part of a fulfilling life for most. We miss them. Lord, do we miss them.
4. Distanced learning cannot substitute for these other things we are missing about our constricted lives and craving and it cannot and should not be judged by falling short of something it cannot and should not do.
5. The most knowledgable and best distanced learning teachers I know would never argue that ALL courses should be delivered online. The recognize it as a channel that is pedagogically useful for some, necessary for others.
6. The people who are talking about how all education can go online forever more (because of costs or efficiency or whatever) have very little investment in quality of instruction. It is a business opportunity. They are not to be trusted.
7. We should not remake higher education around business imperatives. Neither should we take the spring's emergency distance instruction period and use it to judge all of online instruction.
8. I've been thinking about these days because a parent this weekend told me about how terrible the spring was for their child and declared that online classes wasn't "worth it." I asked if they or their child ever had a F2F class that wasn't "worth it." They laughed "of course."
9. Why didn't they demand a refund for that course, I asked. This is a thoughtful person, and they got what I was driving at right away. They recognize that for sure, what a lot of people are paying for is not the learning, but the "experience" of college.
10. I'm a big believer in the value of the "experience" of college. I met my wife in college. I had a professor who put me on the trajectory of the rest of my life. I had leadership experiences. I made mistakes and paid the price. That's worth a lot.
11. Even prior to the pandemic we've made the "experience" part of college less fruitful for many students by turning the whole thing into a gauntlet to be run, rather than a field to be explored. We should take this opportunity to re-examine where we are.
12. This means decoupling prestige from education so institutions can focus on the teaching and learning mission. This means supporting students with less access to means so they concentrate on these worthwhile experiences. We have been so off course for so long.
13. Longterm, I'm hopeful, though. I feel bad for the child of this parent I spoke to. This student's final years of college are going to disrupted and non-optimal. There's no way around it. We're in the midst of a pandemic that our government is mismanaging.
14. But if we use this experience to make something better in the future, if we can act with intention, it won't be wasted. It's not even close to too late.
TL/DR version: The reason so many people are saying teaching and learning online "sucks" is because we miss so many other parts of our lives, not because we can't deliver good education online. It just means it can't substitute for all of education or life, for that matter.
